Learning how to draw/paint environments

[Disciplette]

What is the best way to go about it? I have spent very little time learning how to do it but detailed environments aren't something you can really ignore. I've copied a few photos (see sketchbook) but it seems like I should be doing more.

[Dave_]

And honestly, thats exactly what you need to be doing. Enviroments are everywhere, paint them all, and you should get better.

[dpaint]

Work from life for awhile. Nothing trains you better than seeing how things are in real life and gaining the facility to render from life.

[Disciplette]

Okay, thanks guys. I guess I'll be sticking with copying photos and from life when I can then.

[Noah Bradley]

Yeah, your photo studies are looking pretty good, but be sure to also invent your own scenes. When you do your own work without any reference you realize pretty quickly what it is you need to work on.

And painting from life is so crucial. Photos have their advantages, but the depth of color and values you'll get from life are really important. And getting outside and painting is really fun.

Oh, and I hate to be spammy, but I made a video on painting enviros you might want to check out if you're really bored.

[Disciplette]

Yeah, your photo studies are looking pretty good, but be sure to also invent your own scenes. When you do your own work without any reference you realize pretty quickly what it is you need to work on.

And painting from life is so crucial. Photos have their advantages, but the depth of color and values you'll get from life are really important. And getting outside and painting is really fun.

Oh, and I hate to be spammy, but I made a video on painting enviros you might want to check out if you're really bored.

Oh no, that video is great, thank you.

IA with you on the bolded.

[Disciplette]

I was watching your video and notice that you changed the size of brush using some sort of shortcut I'll assume? How are you doing that?

[KarylGilbertson]

Disciplette,

If you're working in Photoshop, you can adjust brush sizes with the [ and ] keys. You can also hold ALT or OPTION and RIGHT CLICK to drag out your desired brush size. Or you can right click on the canvas, which quickly brings up a little menu for you to select brush type and size. It's also possible he's mapped the keys to one of the buttons on his tablet.

[Noah Bradley]

Yeah, I change brush sizes all the time. I hated how far the [ and ] keys were away from the left side of the keyboard, so I changed the shortcut to A and S. My hand now remains comfortably in the corner of the keyboard.

[Disciplette]

Disciplette,

If you're working in Photoshop, you can adjust brush sizes with the [ and ] keys. You can also hold ALT or OPTION and RIGHT CLICK to drag out your desired brush size. Or you can right click on the canvas, which quickly brings up a little menu for you to select brush type and size. It's also possible he's mapped the keys to one of the buttons on his tablet.

That's what I've been doing and the extra clicking and dragging is just one more annoying step. Yes that sounds lazy I know. lol Clicking the other keys sounds way more efficient.

[Disciplette]

Okay, I've been working on this for the past few weeks and progress seems slow. How long does it take other people to learn how to do this well? There's just so much to learn.

[QueenGwenevere]

Okay, I've been working on this for the past few weeks and progress seems slow. How long does it take other people to learn how to do this well? There's just so much to learn.

More than a few weeks! More like a few years...

[Noah Bradley]

Speed of progress really varies from person to person, and also depending on how much you put into it. I put in a lot of time and energy and this is the progress I made in the course of a little over a year:





(you can check out my sketchbook for the work that happened in between these two)

The main thing is that if you really want to get better, then pour yourself into it. Do studies, do some plein aire work, read up on great landscape painters, and keep cranking out your own imagined pieces. You can do it.

[Disciplette]

More than a few weeks! More like a few years...

Thanks for snapping me back to reality I guess.


Noah,
I took a look at your sketchbook and your progress is awesome. You didn't start out all that bad.

[QueenGwenevere]

Well, at least give it a few months before you worry about whether you're making any progress... A few weeks is nothin' in art-learning terms. That's just enough to get your feet wet.

[Noah Bradley]

You didn't start out all that bad.

Oh, I assure you I started out really bad. I had been drawing and painting for years before I even started that sketchbook.

[reme]

Hello, could any of you suggest a few environment masters?
Thanks!

[Erin_Something]

Thomas Cole. (I'm sorry I just drooled all over my keyboard)

http://www.paintinghere.com/UploadPi...0of%20Nero.jpg

This might not be what your after but I love John Virtue's city scapes.

http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/art...virtue_400.jpg

Turner is also a badass.

http://turner-margate.tripod.com/turner-slave-ship.jpg

[Noah Bradley]

Other names:

Albert Bierstadt
Thomas Moran
Frederic Church
George Inness

[QueenGwenevere]

Don't forget Caspar David Friedrich...
Also:
Monet (duh...)
Caspar Wolf
Albert Bierstadt
Carl Gustav Carus
Thomas Moran (actually, these are best seen live - he does all sorts of freaky things with the paint.)
William Trost Richards
John Frederick Kensett
Dwight William Tryon
Childe Hassam, though his late stuff is a bit too fluzzery in my opinion...
Alexander H. Wyant
Hubert Robert
Théodore Rousseau
Alexandre Calame

John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer (check out their watercolor sketches too! Amazing stuff...)

Corot's plein air oil sketches are excellent. So are Leighton's. (I've never been a fan of Corot's studio paintings though...)

Actually, if you research eighteenth and nineteenth century landscape oil sketches in general (and especially in France,) there's a lot of good stuff, even by lesser-known artists. Here's a few, more or less at random:
Henri-Joseph Harpignies
Charles-François Daubigny
Auguste-François Bonheur
Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny
Simon Denis

And if you ask me, the landscapes in paintings by Brueghel and Bellini are always worth a closer look.